Error nil pointer evaluating interface {}.enabled on Helm chart upgrade to 1.15.0

[fmunteanu]

Error nil pointer evaluating interface {}.enabled on Helm chart upgrade to 1.15.0

[inteon]

--reuse-values makes Helm re-use the values that it is currently using for your Helm chart release. The newly introduced property crds is not part of your existing values.yaml (it was added to the defaults in values.yaml in v1.15.0), causing Helm to fail when we try to read the enabled field on this property (interface {}.enabled) in the new templates.

By using --reset-then-reuse-values, you use the new defaults that are provided in the new version of the Helm chart. Afterwards, the existing values are applied on top of these defaults. This resolves the issue because the crds is now a property that exists in the defaults.

In my opinion, this is an issue caused by how Helm handles changing the default values.yaml values across versions. It is impossible for us to introduce new complex properties without breaking upgrading with the --reuse-values flag.
Not sure if there are any other issues with the --reset-then-reuse-values flag, but I would advise to use that flag instead (like explained on the website https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/upgrade/#crds-managed-using-helm)

[fmunteanu]

If I perform a clean helm chart install, everything works as expected, only the upgrade is broken.

[declum]

Can you change installCrds to crds.enabled? https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/helm/

[inteon]

@fmunteanu I think you have to use the --reset-then-reuse-values flag, as described here: https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/upgrade/#crds-managed-using-helm

--reuse-values should not be used when upgrading versions.

[fmunteanu]

@declum thank you for pointing this out, I see installCRDs was deprecated. Still, this should not affect the upgrade.

You are correct @inteon, I'm using Ansible to deploy the cert-manager Helm chart, with reset_values: false and reuse_values: true. I had no idea about this, I've been using these two settings for all other charts, without any issues.

Can you please explain why this breaks the upgrade? Thank you.